Hungary’s MTVA Picks Up Estonian Bank Drama

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The Estonian drama series The Bank (Pank) has been acquired by Media Service Support and Asset Management Fund (MTVA), Hungary’s state-owned national public-service broadcasting organization, to air on Duna, M2 and M5.

The series follows the rise of an Estonian bank during the turbulent ’90s just after the fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of the Soviet Union. The drama will air with Hungarian dubbing.

Itamambuca Filmproduction is behind the series, which was sold by Videoplugger into Hungary.

Zoltán Nevelős, head of acquisitions at MTVA, said, “Pank has been a great discovery for us, one of the most inventive, thematically and stylistically most exciting series this year, and one for which we thought it is worth taking the risk for all its unusual qualities. There is an appetite for great new European drama among our viewers, and there is definitely great interest in exploring—in such an innovative and entertaining way—the dramatic changes our Eastern European societies went through in the early 1990s.”

Paul Aguraiuja, producer at Itamambuca Filmproduction, added, “I am extremely happy that Pank will be broadcasted in Hungary as we share a rather similar history with them. I am sure that a story about starting a new country in Europe only 25 years ago will touch the audiences and I am very thankful to MTVA for taking the risk and including a series from Estonia to their main channels. It shows the quality and that we are on the right track.”

Emanuele Galloni, CEO of Videoplugger, said, “We’re so proud to see Pank crossing so many borders and now being welcomed by MTVA in Hungary, who strongly believed in this title. There is so much enthusiasm across the international media scene about the series and we’re looking forward to seeing it going beyond and reach more and more audiences.”